New Variant COVID in Crete?

[Tim]

According to a doctor in Sitia this morning, there are now four confirmed cases of new variant COVID in the small town of Paleokastro near Sitia. The virus was apparently brought in by a German national who has now left the country, and all four cases were contracted in a local baker's shop. This would fit with the one Lasithi case reported by KTG on Saturday and the three further cases reported yesterday.

Tim

[BST]

I hope you are wrong. There were reports (several sources yesterday) of 4 travellers amongst a group of six entering Greece from the UK on 30th December who all had the mutant variety. After detailed epidemiology they are under guard in a quarantine hotel. I assume in Athens. I could be wrong but reading between the lines and from comments, they may have been Greek students returning home??

[DJ]

21 tested positive in Palekastro today. More tests tomorrow.

[Kilkis]

Where did the information come from, DJ? According to the government chart published in this Keep Talking Greece article there were 3 positive cases in Lasithi today with 1 in Heraklion, 10 in Chania and 0 in Rethymnon.

Warwick

[mrsbluenose]

If true, I suppose these 21 will be reflected in tomorrow's figures.

Stu

[Kilkis]

It is possible. I am not sure exactly what time period the report covers. The figures I quote are from the chart for 5 January and includes cases in the last 24 hours so it is from some time on 4 January to the same time on 5 January. What that time is I have no idea.

Warwick

[BST]

It's in local press and just announced:
Not good for people at opposite end of the island. 21 cases in a couple of days in tiny Palekastro!!!

"Covid-19: Emergency measures for Palekastro Sitia by the Civil Protection
Covid-19: Emergency measures for Palekastro Sitia by the Civil Protection

From 6 in the morning on Wednesday and for 10 days hard measures due to the many cases of coronavirus.
New measures are activated in Sitia and P.E. Rodopi.

Especially for the Local Community of Palekastro, Sitia, where the rapid tests showed increased cases of coronavirus , from 6 in the morning on Wednesday and for 10 days it is forbidden to move outside the community, there is a complete ban from 18:00 in the afternoon, suspension all religious ceremonies and suspension of all stores."

The announcement of the Civil Protection

From Flashnews.gr. Facebook news is more up to date.

[DJ]

Lassithi - Sitia, Palekastro:

"The situation in the community of Palekastro in Sitia is characterised as extremely difficult, successive cases of covid have been detected and the possibility of local quarantine seems very probable.

Speaking on the Regional Television Station CRETA, the mayor of Sitia, George Zervakis, noted that "the situation is very difficult. It is now very likely that we will be excluded from the local community . Decisions are made centrally by the state and we are waiting for relevant instructions . "

13 "positive" patients have been found in the area and another 8 who were identified after testing in private diagnostic centers .

"EODY(National Health Authority) has completed the test process for today and the numbers are worrying. Respective tests will be held on Wednesday as well, said the mayor.

EODY team proceeded to dozens of diagnostic tests and the results meant ... a red alert. The number of "positive" in the coronavirus is a total of 21 while the spread in the community is more worrying
There are cases in families and there is a spread that shows that there was a viral load that moved in the last 24 hours", stressed Mr. Zervakis."

https://creta24.gr/sto-kokkino-chorio-t ... periochis/

[BST]

So far another 6 positives out of 155 today. Aiming to do 200. Around 800 people behave requested tests.

[BST]

38 now. Looks like it came from someone working in a bakery/grocery store who didn't get tested for several days.
https://www.neakriti.gr/article/kriti/l ... Q.facebook

[Kilkis]

Lasithi has now gone up to the third level of 50 to 149.9 cases per 100,000 in a 14 day period. Tracking cases reported on Keep Talking Greece I make it 66. Chania and Rethymnon both had an up-tick following Christmas/New Year but are still below 25, in the case of Chania - only just. Heraklion mostly flattened with only a handful of extra cases and is now the lowest infection level on Crete per 100,000.

I have still failed to find any media report linking the Paleokastro outbreak to the new COVID variant from the UK? The government claims that there are only 8 cases of the variant in Greece and they all came in from outside, either from the UK or Dubai. There have been 42 new cases altogether in Lasithi in the last 3 days. If the outbreak was caused by the new variant then there would be far more than 8 cases of it in the whole of Greece. I suspect that the outbreak is so severe because someone with COVID, but with mild symptoms, carried on working for several days in an environment where they would pass it on to many people rather than due to high transmissibility because it is the new variant. I could be wrong but Tim's original post is the only reference I can find to it being the new variant.

Warwick

[Tim]

... I have still failed to find any media report linking the Paleokastro outbreak to the new COVID variant from the UK? The government claims that there are only 8 cases of the variant in Greece and they all came in from outside, either from the UK or Dubai. There have been 42 new cases altogether in Lasithi in the last 3 days. If the outbreak was caused by the new variant then there would be far more than 8 cases of it in the whole of Greece. I suspect that the outbreak is so severe because someone with COVID, but with mild symptoms, carried on working for several days in an environment where they would pass it on to many people rather than due to high transmissibility because it is the new variant. I could be wrong but Tim's original post is the only reference I can find to it being the new variant. Warwick

Agreed. I was passing on hearsay, albeit from what I considered to be a reliable source. I would have thought if it was the new variant, there would have been more comment in the media.

Tim

[DJ]

I was in Palekastro for two weeks in October. We have been going there since 1994 and were married in the former town hall (now closed). I was boasting to friends back in the UK that there was no hint of the virus where we were, which (as you on this forum all know) is at the very far end of eastern Crete. Just goes to show how easy it is to infect even a fairly isolated town. Hopefully, the strict measures now imposed there will do the job.

[Kilkis]

Chania has now gone up to the second level of infection, 25 to 49.9 per 100,000 in a 14 day period, following the increased mixing over Christmas/New Year. Lasithi is still climbing.

Warwick

[Jean]

Chania has now gone up to the second level of infection, 25 to 49.9 per 100,000 in a 14 day period,

But only just: 39 cases over the last 14 days so that makes it 26 (assuming a total population of 150.000 for the prefecture of Chania)